Stephen 'Rhyme and Reason' was one of my most anticipated albums of 2011, especially when I read that Mike Slamer and Tommy Denander are involved and Chris Ousey's vocal is undeniably amazing, ever since I first heard him in HEARTLAND, but I think I set my expectation too high. Looks like Slamer wasn't contributing a lot of writing and instead Denander took care of this business and unfortunately the album kinda lacks the outstanding songs necessary to boost the final score.

The big problem here is the weak verses because most of the songs actually have good choruses. For example, 'Motivation' should be a huge uptempo tune, 'Give Me Shelter' should be amazing too, 'The Reason Why' could have been a spectacular ballad, but all verses sound tired and very average, and dragged 'em down to only 'good' status. The perfect arrangement should be like 'On Any Other Day' or 'By Any Other Name' which is simply the best songs here, but sadly, you can't find any other tunes like that.

'A Natural Law' is a good ballad but 'To Break A Heart' is dull and unbearable. The rest of the tracks are good, perhaps at 7/10 value, but I really expect much more than this. The production is great and Ousey's vocal is awesome as usual. However, looks a definite grower type of album, sounds sophisticated and mature, and I'm pretty sure you need to spend time to really appreciate the whole album. 70%

Time Signature Motivation...

Genre: hard rock

Seasoned rock vocalist Chris Ousey is releasing this solo release upon the world in November, and fans of melodic hard rock with AOR tendencies are definitely in for a treat.

Although this is a solo album released under the name of a vocalist, the guitars are given plenty of room, and there is indeed focus on driving and hard rocking riffs in many of the songs, which I personally appreciate. So, yes, this indeed rocks hard in many places, but there is also focus on melody, and true to the spirit of AOR, there are plenty of melodic vocal lines, mellow passages, and certain poppy things every now and then, and there definitely is nothing wrong with that - it just ensures that the music is catchy and has broad appeal.

Now, riffs and rock 'n' roll aside, this is still Chris Ousey's solo album, and, being the experienced singer he is, he certainly impresses with his 'golden tonsils', and his unique voice definitely contributes greatly to the overall catchiness of this album.

"Rhyme & Reason" is a solid, riff-n-melody based hard rock album which should appeal to fans of both hard-edged rock and melody-filled AOR.